


Coming Out and Its Aftermath

by Tutok_The_Dwarf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, LGBTQ Themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-05 17:36:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18833467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tutok_The_Dwarf/pseuds/Tutok_The_Dwarf
Summary: This work contains some material that may be triggering to some people, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community. Also, to those more experienced with the Archive rating and tag systems, if I made a mistake (or simply used a less accurate tag/rating), feel free to say so in the comments and which tag/rating is more accurate or correct. This work will be posted chapter by chapter.





	1. The Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

> This work contains some material that may be triggering to some people, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community. Also, to those more experienced with the Archive rating and tag systems, if I made a mistake (or simply used a less accurate tag/rating), feel free to say so in the comments and which tag/rating is more accurate or correct. This work will be posted chapter by chapter.

Chapter 1

Alex walked through the halls, as he had done many times before. _Something is different_ , he thought. This was definitely the same high school he had gone to for his freshman, sophomore, and junior years. _What is different?_ thought Alex. It had the same brown-gray brick walls and white tile floors speckled with brown, gray, and black; in summary, it was the standard high school. _Something is different_ , he thought. _Could it be the people?_ wondered Alex. The people; they were staring at him as he walked past. These were definitely the same people he had known throughout his high school career. _Could it be my appearance?_ This was not his strangest look ever; he was wearing his normal loose-fitting blue-jeans and a t-shirt, and it wasn’t even his first time wearing a binder to school. His hair was slightly longer than usual, but by no more than an inch, and it was even its natural light brown. _What is different?_ Then he remembered.

✮    ✮    ✮

_Finally, the last day before Christmas Break_ , thought Alex, _only 7 hours until we’re free for a week and a half._ As with every year, the day before Christmas Break is full of restlessness among the students. They are full of energy for the long break. The loud students are louder, and even the quiet students are talking. The bullies are also more active, though their tactics are often cruder; and the quiet, shy Alex was often their target.

“Hey, AlexANDRA! Where do you think you’re going?” shouted a familiar voice.

Alex flinched at the sudden, loud address. He turned to see Jared, one of the less active, though often much crueler, bullies addressing him. “Do not call me Alexandra! I have asked you numerous times to stop using that name,” Alex snapped back. Alex had no wish for confrontation, especially this early in the morning. Then the bell rang, giving the 5 minute warning for the start of classes. _Saved by the bell_ , remarked Alex to himself with a chuckle. He then hurried off to his first class, chemistry. Alex was not an exceptional student, but he could manage B’s in most classes with some effort.

The first half of his day went by uneventfully, then he went to lunch. His school split the lunch periods so that freshmen and sophomores had one lunch period together, while juniors and seniors had the other.

“Growing your hair out, AlexANDRA?” Jared said from behind Alex.

Alex hated being called by that name. _I’ll just ignore him, he’ll stop eventually_ . Alex waved one of his few friends, Carter, over to him in line. _Maybe another person will get this jerk to leave me alone_. Carter was a tall, lanky young man, with short blonde hair, shorter than Alex’s. He went over to Alex in line.

“Ready to stop being such a tomboy, Alexandra?” sneered Jared.

“They are not a tomboy, they are who they are! No more, no less.” said Carter forcefully, almost yelling.

“And why should I listen to your queer ass?” growled Jared.

Carter lunged at Jared, but Alex grabbed him and held him back. _We won’t get anywhere with violence_ , thought Alex, as if Carter could hear him. Carter had come out as gay a few years ago, and Jared was his main tormentor both before and after his coming out. Alex had been one of the first people that Carter had confided in while coming out, and Carter remains one of the few people that knows that Alex is transgender, though that does not stop Alex’s classmates from making assumptions based upon his typically tomboyish looks.

“Carter, we must be the bigger men,” Alex said calmly.

“You already are a bigger man than him,” replied Carter under his breath.

“What was that, you fucking twink?”

The lunch line began moving forward, giving them a moment’s distraction from Jared’s insults. It was the typical school lunch: some sort meat on some sort of bread or bun, with one or two fruit options, and one or two vegetable options.

“You heard me; Alex is a bigger man than you’ll ever be, and I’m more woman than you’ll ever get,” Carter said as Alex elbowed him.

“Alexandra is no man. She is a poor excuse for a girl and trying to be a boy.”

"I am NOT a girl! I am tired of everyone talking behind my back; I am tired of you tormenting us! I am trans! Stop treating me like a girl! My name is not Alexandra!" Alex screamed as he balled up a fist and punched Jared square in the gut, knocking him off his feet.

Thankfully Jared never reported that. If he reported it, it would become official that the big bad bully had been knocked off his feet by a "girl." Everyone had heard about the incident, but the teachers could not act on a rumor only, and Jared was more than happy to leave it as a rumor that could be dismissed just as easily.

✮    ✮    ✮

That was why everyone was staring: just before break, he had not only outed himself as transgender, but also punched the bully who had pushed him to outing himself. Then the bell rang, and Alex went to his first class. His teacher was waiting for him, and told him that he was to go to the office.

When he got to the office, he was waived toward the principal's office; the door was open just a crack, and Alex could here a portion of the conversation happening as he walked up.

"But how do we know that she IS transgender?" said one of the voices.

"How do we know that you aren't transgender?" replied a second voice.

"Well-umm, I-uh, I just know that I am not." replied the first voice, flustered.

Alex reached the door and knocked. "Come in," said the first voice, now clearly belonging to the school principal, Mr. Anderson. It was now clear that the second voice belonged to the vice principal, Mr. Emery.

"Alexandra-"

"Alex," corrected the vice principal.

"Alex, do you know why you were called here today?" asked the principal calmly.

"I believe so." Alex replied meekly.

"We are here because of before Christmas Break. We need to talk about accommodations for you." said Mr. Emery, with a sideways glare at the principal.

"We need to act in the best interests of ALL of our students, so you must understand that we are very limited in what accommodations we can provide. You see, you’re the first openly transgender student at this school" replied the principal, returning the glare.

"Well, I would, umm, I would like to use, uhh-" Alex was saying before being cut off.

"What we need is to do our best to make Alex feel safe," interrupted Mr. Emery, now directly addressing Mr. Anderson.

"We need to make sure every student feels safe." replied Mr. Anderson, raising his voice slightly. "Alex, you may go back to class. Clearly, Mr. Emery and I must discuss something privately."

As he was closing the office door, he could hear the principal and vice principal begin to argue about how to address the ‘issue’ of a transgender student. Alex received a pass from one of the office secretaries and then returned to his first hour class. His first class was otherwise uneventful, as were his second, third, and fourth hour classes. The one unusual thing was that every teacher seemed to be addressing him very carefully, or they were avoiding addressing him at all. He then went to lunch.

For Alex, lunch could be the best or the worst part of the day: he gets to see his friends, but he might have to face most of his tormentors at once. Alex immediately went to find Carter. Alex needed someone who would not treat him differently since coming out as publicly as he had. After finding him, Alex joined Carter in line. Once they got their food, they headed to their usual table, a small round table in the far corner of the cafeteria. Once there, Alex found his other two close friends: Theresa and Sarah. Sarah and Alex had been friends long before Alex knew that he was transgender, in fact, she was Alex’s oldest friend. Alex had introduced Sarah and Carter to each other about four years, and they almost immediately started dating, and it was during this relationship that Carter realized that he was gay. The two ended their relationship amicably, and have been friends since. Theresa, on the other hand, was a bisexual, though she often tries to portray the stereotype of a hyper-feminine lesbian. She was the first person in Alex’s friend group to come out as anything other than cisgender or heterosexual, though she is only out to a select few. Despite this, Carter was the first to come out publicly. When Carter and Alex sat down, Sarah and Theresa greeted them enthusiastically. After a few moments of silence, Sarah spoke up, “How does it feel to be out? Like I mean ‘out’ out, not just with your friends.”

“I feel no different than before. It’s not like I was trying super hard to hide it,” responded Alex. He continued, “Though, everyone else seems to be staring at me. It couldn’t have been **that** much of a surprise.”

“And how did it feel to punch out Jared like that?” chimed in Theresa.

“I really don’t want to talk about that. I am usually the one counselling against violence.”

“But it must have felt good, like really good, to hit him; you knocked him on his ass,” interjected Sarah.

“Whether it felt good or not, it was wrong to hit him, and I regret doing it,” replied Alex sternly, which seemed to get Alex’s point across.

For the rest of their lunch period, the four of them talked about how their Christmases had gone. The rest of the school day went by uneventfully, except for several near misses  with Jared in the hallway. When the final period ended, Alex got into his car, a hand-me-down from his parents for his 16th birthday, and went home.

Alex’s home life was pretty good. He had told his parents that he is transgender over a year ago, and they have been nothing but accepting of him. They have always wanted him to be happy. When he got home, his mother was waiting at the door for him, knowing what had happened the previous school day.

“How was your day?” she asked.

“It wasn’t bad. The principal and vice principal disagree about what to do with me. It’s honestly very sad, but it is also kind of funny seeing them argue like an old married couple.” replied Alex with a chuckle.

“That would be quite a sight.” said his mother, laughing. “Just so you know, you have our support. We want you to feel safe.” she continued.

“By the way, when is dad going to be home?” he asked.

“He had to work late tonight. He should be back around 9:30.” she answered.

“I will likely be asleep by then. Please tell him I had a good day. I know you both were worried about today.”

Alex then went to his room to do his homework free from distractions. After that and dinner, he did indeed go to bed before his father got home, though he was not yet asleep. He considered getting up to talk to his father, but decided to just get to sleep.


	2. Accommodations and Sleep-overs

Chapter 2

Over the next few days, Alex would be included in several more talks with the principal and vice principal about which accommodations the school could, or should, offer. Throughout this time, Alex was bombarded with questions by his classmates about being transgender. Many of them were the good-natured inquiries of those people who wanted to understand, though some were misguided and unintentionally offensive, such as “Are you sure that you’re trans?” or “How can you be a boy, you don’t have a . . .?” Most people did not mean to offend, though their lack of knowledge about being trans often lead them to. By the end of the week, Alex was tired of defending his identity from almost everyone, and he had even noticed a change in some of the faculty: some of them were calling on him less in class, and a few would barely make eye contact with him. When they weren’t questioning him, his classmates were doing one of two things: giving him strange looks or actively looking away from him.. He had hoped it would pass, like it did when he came out as pansexual, another time when people didn’t know what to do with him. He didn’t mind answering those questions posed by those who wanted to understand, but he refused to even acknowledge the people who used the questions to mock him. Then came Friday.

As seemed usual for this week, Alex was called down to the office at the beginning of first hour, and was directed to the principal’s office. Inside was not only the principal and vice principal, but also the school’s guidance counselor, Ms. Cooper. They had been waiting in silence for Alex this time. It was the vice principal who spoke first.

“Good morning. Come inside and sit down,” he said. Now Alex could see the start of a smug grin on his face.

“Good morning,” the other two joined in greeting Alex.

“You have been called here because we have decided on what accommodations the school can provide for you,” the principal continued. He glared at the vice principal upon seeing the growing smile on Mr. Emery’s face.

“After much unnecessary discussion, we have come to the conclusion that you will be allowed to use the restroom that most reflects your identity,” interrupted the vice principal. “But you will still have to use the women’s locker room. If there are any issues with the other students, report them straight to the office. We will deal them.” he continued.

Then the counselor chose to speak up, “If you ever need someone to talk privately, you can come to me. My office is designated a safe space, and you already know which other teachers have their rooms designated LGBT safe spaces.”

“Thank you, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Emery, and Ms. Cooper.” replied Alex, quite grateful to have the support of the school administration behind him.

“You are dismissed back to class.” said Mr. Anderson.

“I would like to accompany you to your class. Is that okay with you?” asked Ms. Cooper.

“Sure.” replied Alex.

Alex and the counselor then started to head to Alex’s first class. After they cleared the office, Ms. Cooper spoke up, “I understand that this time is going to be especially trying for you. Not only do you have to contend with the bullies here, but the news can’t be helping. People wanting to say that your wrong, that who you are is wrong. I can’t imagine what that is like, no matter how much I try,”

Alex just nodded in agreement.

“Also, if any of your classmates give you a hard time, come to me. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Emery each want different things out of this. Mr. Anderson wants this school to keep running smoothly at all costs, but I don’t know what Mr. Emery wants.” she went on.

“Okay.” replied Alex.

“If you need to talk about anything, you can talk to me. I know it is not easy to talk to us adults, but just know that we’re here. It’s my job to be here for you and all the other students.” she continued.

“Thank you.” responded Alex. Not long after that brief conversation, they arrived at Alex’s first hour class. Ms. Cooper said goodbye to Alex, and left him at class. As normal, the first two classes went by uneventfully.

In his third hour class, though, was one of his lesser tormentors, a young man by the name of Elliot, chose to sit behind him. Elliot had not always bullied Alex; in fact, they had been friends at one point. Then, before Alex had come out as pansexual, he had confronted Elliot about his use of “gay” as an insult. After that, Elliot and Alex stopped hanging out together, and Elliot, who knew Alex had been questioning his sexuality, started spreading a rumor that Alex was gay. His torment of Alex has devolved since then into more crude methods, such as pushing/shoving him in the halls or kicking his chair repeatedly during class. Alex had been glad not to have interacted with Elliot after coming out as trans, but it would seem that that grace period was over. After Elliot sat down, he leaned forward and whispered to Alex, “Trying to be a man? Well, you must’ve missed the memo: you’re missing some parts.” Before Alex could come up with a suitable retort, the second bell rang, signaling the start of class. During the class, Elliot did indeed kick Alex’s chair, but otherwise left him alone.

Alex’s third and fourth hour classes went by uneventfully, and he got to go to lunch. After getting his meal, he sat with his friends as usual, making some small talk while they waited for the rest of their friends to show up. After the last person sat down, it was Sarah who first spoke.

“So, did you finally find out what the school will be doing with you?” she asked.

“Yes.” replied Alex.

Before he could continue, Sarah interrupted, “Well, what are they going to do?”

“I will be allowed to use the bathroom of my choosing, but I will still have to use the women’s locker room.” responded Alex.

“That’s a start at least.” said Theresa.

“Seems pretty good to me.” said Sarah.

“And what about the bullies?” asked Carter.

“They said to report them straight to the office, that they would deal with them.” replied Alex.

“Maybe something will actually get done about it now?” said Theresa.

“Hopefully. It also might get lost in procedure much quicker now.” said Carter with a sigh. 

The conversation would then start to change topics to much lighter subjects, such as assignments, boyfriends/girlfriends/non-binary partners, and the upcoming weekend. Alex had a small tradition of spending Friday nights at a friend’s house, and this weekend he would be spending time with Theresa. They were not romantically involved with each other, nor had they been. They simply enjoyed each other’s company, as they enjoyed all of their friends’ company.

Much to Alex’s relief, the rest of the school day would pass without incident. He went home at the end of the day, and packed an overnight bag, and drove to Theresa’s house. Once there, he was met at the door by an exceedingly enthusiastic Theresa and her parents.

“HELLO!” said Theresa loudly, almost yelling with excitement.

“Hello, Alex.” said her parents in a much calmer tone.

Theresa’s family did not have a large home. Theresa, like Alex, was an only child. While their home was not large, it was very nice; it had hardwood floors throughout the main level, a finished basement, and an upper level with three bedrooms: the master, Theresa’s room, and a guest bedroom. While her family was not rich, they were well off. Theresa’s parents knew that their daughter was bisexual, as they had walked in on her kissing another female friend a little over a year earlier. They were a little surprised and uncomfortable with the fact, though neither of them were openly against it. After that, they were a little more wary of letting Alex and Theresa share a room when he spent the night, though they never forbade it.

They prepared a simple, but good meal. This time it was a simple chicken Alfredo with broccoli and garlic bread. After the meal, Theresa helped to clean up and then her and Alex played a couple rounds of board games with Theresa’s parents, then watched a movie,  which they would proceed to talk through most of.

“So, do you have a girlfriend yet?” asked Theresa.

Alex shook his head no.

“Ooh! A boyfriend?” she continued her inquiry.

“No.”

“You should really get out there again. I know you haven’t had much success, but you’ll find someone.”

“It was hard enough to find someone before I came out as trans. Even then, no one wanted to go out with the ‘queer kid.’ And definitely no one wants to admit to liking the trans person.” Alex was starting to tear up at this point. When Theresa noticed this, she slid over on the couch and hugged him tightly.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea this was a hard topic for you. I suppose I have never really thought about it that way. To me, you aren’t the ‘queer kid’ or the trans person, nor have you ever been. You are, and have always been, just my friend Alex. You might be transgender and pansexual, and they are part of who you are, but those labels don’t define you.”

By now, Alex was crying in his friend’s arms. He was sobbing, not able to even try to regain his composure. Now keenly feeling her friend’s despair, Theresa herself began to cry. They cried themselves to sleep, both trying to console the other, and the other being inconsolable. And there they slept, holding each other close on the couch, each seemingly trying to protect the other from the cruelty they had faced. It would be be a fitful sleep for Alex, his dreams full of the teasing he had endured over the years.

Just after three AM, Alex awoke from a nightmare in a cold sweat, though the memory of it was fading fast. He found that someone had covered the both of them with blanket that had been on the back of the couch. He would try in vain to get back to sleep. Resigned to this fact, he decided to lie there and enjoy the warmth of Theresa, and try his best not to wake her.


End file.
